lol. I wanted to ask you,or anyone else whose been here a while a question, though you will prob do great because you are an experienced and long established person on bullsido. whats with the noob hate and why is anyone who defends their position a troll, half retarded, or obtuse? Especially when neither party can produce empirically proven evidence to support thier opinions?

lol. I wanted to ask you, because you are an experienced and long established person on bullsido, whats with the noob hate and why is anyone who defends their position a troll, half retarded, or obtuse? Especially when neither party can produce empirically proven evidence?

Heh, I still halfway consider myself a noob, but I'll answer this to the best of my ability.

This site has been around for a LOOOONG time. Once you've been here for a couple of years you'll have seen almost every POSSIBLE martial arts related argument at least once. I've been on here about 4 years and I have definitely seen almost all of them twice.
For the folks that have been here longer they've seen them all even more. So when some new person starts a thread that essentially restates a position that was thoroughly debated a year ago, and a year before that, and 2 years before that.... and so on, the first reaction is one of exasperated annoyance. None of them want to redo the same argument AGAIN with the same arguments on both sides. So instead it becomes "You're retarded, STFU Noob!" followed by 10 pages of lolcat pics and asian girls in lingerie.
Occasionally something new pops up and it gets a great discussion going and new things come to light, but for the most part we spend a lot of time going over the same old ground with new people. The latest 19 year old Kung Fu guy who is CERTAIN he has T3h [email protected], or some kid who is doing backyard wrestling and wants to tell us all how awesome he is, those are the guys we're used to seeing every year, over and over and over.

So yeah, it's not that we HATE NOOBS, it's that most noobs are just carbon copies of the noobs we saw LAST year.

Heh, I still halfway consider myself a noob, but I'll answer this to the best of my ability.

This site has been around for a LOOOONG time. Once you've been here for a couple of years you'll have seen almost every POSSIBLE martial arts related argument at least once. I've been on here about 4 years and I have definitely seen almost all of them twice.
For the folks that have been here longer they've seen them all even more. So when some new person starts a thread that essentially restates a position that was thoroughly debated a year ago, and a year before that, and 2 years before that.... and so on, the first reaction is one of exasperated annoyance. None of them want to redo the same argument AGAIN with the same arguments on both sides. So instead it becomes "You're retarded, STFU Noob!" followed by 10 pages of lolcat pics and asian girls in lingerie.
Occasionally something new pops up and it gets a great discussion going and new things come to light, but for the most part we spend a lot of time going over the same old ground with new people. The latest 19 year old Kung Fu guy who is CERTAIN he has T3h [email protected], or some kid who is doing backyard wrestling and wants to tell us all how awesome he is, those are the guys we're used to seeing every year, over and over and over.

So yeah, it's not that we HATE NOOBS, it's that most noobs are just carbon copies of the noobs we saw LAST year.

clarified. Now I understand. One day I hope to hate repeating threads and arguements also

How have I missed this thread until now. Man, these forums are going absolutely crazy these days.

And for the record, the whole Judiasm angle is one reason I kept pursuing the Brinn investigation once it came to light; it is offensive and misleading, in that people can think he is teaching a Jewish martial art.

Thought I'd swing by Shamar again tonite.

Soke has clarified the 'Jewish thing' somewhat on the site (maybe as a response to this thread?).

Well, the simplest answer is that it is a grouping of tools used by its members for survival and defense. We have researched for decades and continue to do so all available means of defense and survival and then, based against our combat principles, we aggregate and assimilate the best of these into the Shamar system.

Is Shamar system a Jewish thing?

No. Itís a survival and defense thing. Shamar is a Hebrew word and so we understand why some people might wonder about this, however, the system itself is not culturally dependant. We literally take from all cultures and forms of survival and defense to create and maintain the effectiveness of the system.

Why use a Hebrew word, and is this a religious thing?

First, the system itself is not religious and does not contain religion related words, acts, traditions or otherwise. This is VERY different than most styles of martial arts that more often than not include bits and pieces of their respective cultures religious beliefs. This is by design. The founding members of Shamar system are all believers and followers of the son of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Jesus Christ / Yeshua). Because of that fact they purposely removed the religious overtones from the arts they studied in the past when creating Shamar system so that their new system would not interfere or conflict with their own religious beliefs.

Shamar system does NOT require any religious specification or activity in order to study and train within the system, at its functions or with its members. However, what IS required is respect of the founders religion and an understanding that during training you may be exposed to it. We also reserve the right to refuse or stop training for any individual that creates conflict through their actions against it. We will pray before and after each training session although prayer is not required for all who attend.

The fact is that we have people from different religious beliefs listed as Black Belts within Shamar system (Jewish, Agnostic, etc.) and even someone listed at the Instructor level within Shamar system that practices Judaism. We do not force our religious beliefs on anyone, although we are happy to discuss them and eventually pray that all will come to not only understand them but also believe them as well.

I've highlighted in red all those passages that sound like Brinnspeak. I dunno, maybe I'm just thick - but it sounds to me as though he's saying that his 'non religious' system that doesn't contain religion actually has religion in it. :icon_scra